When and how do you determine which victory you want to achieve?

[intellectsucks]

At what point in the game do you determine which victory condition to go for? What factors lead you to go for that?

 

[Builderphile]

I usually decide as soon as I find out what Civ I am going to be (I usually play random).

However, I know many of the best players often wait until it is time to start mass producing districts (i.e. after building the empire through settlers/conquest) before they decide.

I understand that the major factors that they consider are:

1) map (e.g. are there hills/trees for late game space builds for a science win)?
2) civ you are playing (do they have bonuses/units/buildings that are geared toward a particular victory type)?
3) civs you are playing against (e.g. are there culture-monster civs present that will delay your tourism win)?
4) relationships with other civs (is everyone friendly with open borders and trade routes that will help a cultural victory, or is everyone enemies and therefore a science or domination victory easier)?
5) city states (e.g. are there many city states of a particular type that you could use to propel you to a certain type of victory)?
6) to a lesser extent, goodie huts (e.g. did you get a relic early on that can help you with a cultural or religious victory?)

 

[walkerjks]

Before turn 1. I pick civ and map (and sometimes opponents) based on what I want to do. With a civ-state picker, I will get even more carried away stacking things in my favor.

But I don't do multiplayer. Maybe I should play more random civ games. Who am I kidding? I would still try to win mostly* peaceful cultural victories, even when playing as Germany.


*if you are up in my grill immediately, I do reserve the right to conquer you.

 

[Foulweather]

Before I sit down at the computer.

I’ll ride the bus home and think about who I’ll play after dinner, what victory condition I’ll go for, and possibly what strategy I’ll try to use.

 

[walkerjks]

Before turn 1 as well. Usually, I start with either a specific civ (haven't played this one before - there are still a surprising number i haven't) or specific strategy I read about here or came to me after an update. That drives the victory condition and usually the map and sometimes the opponents.

 

[Vargas1]

For me it depends on the civ I’m playing (and to a much lesser extent the map and opponents). If I’m playing a game as Korea or Scotland, I’m going for science. On the other hand, if I play as a generalist civ - Australia or Cree or such - I can get past turn 100 without a clear goal in mind.

The only time I can think of that I made a drastic shift based on map is when I played a shuffle game with Australia and spawned in the middle of a bunch of mountains and next to Yerevan. I rarely go religious unless I decide that before beginning but that map was just too well set up for it to resist.

 

[Sixty_Three]

That’s an interesting question! It has, for me, evolved over time. Currently it partly depends on which civilisation I’ve selected to play. And partly if I’m actually minded to attempt any victory condition. My Civ + victory condition selection logic is:

Maori & England (led by Eleanor)
Cultural victory from Turn #1 or some oddball role-playing approach (e.g. reforest a continent, “assimilate” in a Borg-like fashion a navy (using Sea Dogs) from all other naval powers...or any other daft idea!)

Any “new” Civ bought via a DLC or a Civ randomly chosen by the game
The highest rated victory condition, apart from a Religious Victory, in the “victory slew” section of the excellent guides produced by Zigzagzigal.

 

[dan-the-man278]

This thread is very surprising to me. I always thought the conventional wisdom was that the best players (of which I am not one, I hasten to add) didn't tend to focus on a specific victory condition until early/midway through the game, depending on what the map and opponents have thrown at them. Is this no longer the case?

 

[Nassim]

This thread is very surprising to me. I always thought the conventional wisdom was that the best players (of which I am not one, I hasten to add) didn't tend to focus on a specific victory condition until early/midway through the game, depending on what the map and opponents have thrown at them. Is this no longer the case?

I'm not either, but based on the ones I see playing on YouTube or Twitch, they usually start with a game plan and sometimes adjust based on what the map offers them, or very rarely on what the opposition is doing (I'm saying rarely because they usually play against AI, I don't watch multi player, so it's rare they play well enough to throw a wrench in their plans). And then sometimes you just start earning more diplo points than expected and can pivot for free.

 

[Socrates99]

Depends on the civ. If it's an early domination civ like Aztec I will push hard at expanding in the beginning then shift to whatever VC looks most viable depending on what I've captured and my remaining competition.

If it's a general civ like Germany, Japan, Cree, etc I'll look at the map sometime late classical and decide if the map works better for science or culture.

Full warmonger civs like Zulu are just dom all the way. If I accidentally win something else along the way....yay.

There are quite a few civs that just seem geared to one VC and that's my focus on turn one.

You really dont have to decide early in VI because there's lots of expanding, infrastructure and districts you'll build a lot of no matter what.

 

[PiR]

What I decide before starting the game are the few Steam achievements I'm going for. I also have some that I'm always keeping an eye open for. Then, I try to be good at most things and I let the game decide for me.
I know - it's totally non pro player.

 

[Yzman]

I usually decide before I start based on what civ I am playing and what achievement I am going for.